Friday’s the Deadline for 2062 Time Capsule

By NU Athletic Communications

| 04/08/2013

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If you missedlast Friday’s deadline to submit something for placement in one of 200 Nebraska time capsules that will be buried in an East Stadium vault and opened in 2062, don’t worry, be happy. You’re not out of luck yet. Do what Lincoln’s Kristi Lounsbury did – put a meaningful Husker football memento in the mail and let Nebraska’s Marketing Dept. do the rest. Friday is time capsule deadline day for this commitment to history. Anything that arrives on that day, whether by regular mail, special delivery or brought to the security desk inside the North Stadium, will be considered for placement.

Lounsbury did a simple thing in memory of Stella Duncan, who was a Nebraska football season ticketholder from 1936-1992. She sent a red button from the 1965 Cotton Bowl with a “Go Huskers” at the top. She put it inside a 3-inch-by-4-inch zip lock bag with a short computer-typed note and a Nebraska Alumni address label. “She loved her Huskers and kept her season tickets, whether Nebraska had a winning season or not, for 56 years,” the note said of Duncan. “She wore this button on one of the many road trips she took to follow the Big Red. Her great-great granddaughter, Ava (whose picture was included), attended today’s Spring Game, the fifth generation of our family to attend Husker games.”

Underneath that explanatory note of a simple button relevant to the family was “April 2013”, commemorating a Spring Game that 7-year-old Jack Hoffman made certain would never be forgotten by any generation of Big Red fans. The purpose of this blog is to show everyone how simple this exercise can be. Call it Nostalgia 101 – one last plea for Husker fans everywhere to contribute a modest symbol of something their family cherished, honored and kept.

I can’t end this blog without commenting on what happened in that particular Cotton Bowl on Jan. 1, 1965. No. 2 Arkansas, coached by Frank Broyles, drove 80 yards in nine plays and scored a touchdown with 4:41 remaining in the game to edge No. 6 Nebraska, coached by Bob Devaney. Harry “Lighthorse” Wilson led the Huskers with 84 rushes on 12 carries and scored Nebraska’s only touchdown to give the Huskers a 7-3 halftime lead. That night, Texas upset No. 1 Alabama in the Orange Bowl, handing the Arkansas Hogs their first-ever college football national championship. Since we’re talking history, here’s an interesting side note. On that Arkansas team was an offensive guard named Jerry Jones (No. 61) and a middle guard named Jimmy Johnson (No. 60).

Both are still nationally relevant football figures. Jones owns the Dallas Cowboys, which plays in what many consider to be the best stadium in America. Johnson was the first football coach in history to win both a Division I national championship in college (at Miami) and a Super Bowl (with Dallas, working for his former teammate). Makes you wonder how much one of those two football legends would have been willing to pay for a Nebraska Cotton Bowl pin that represented a national breakthrough for their alma mater. It doesn’t matter, of course, because Stella Duncan wore that pin with pride, even though it represented a loss. That’s what separates Nebraska fans from others, and we all know why – because they all stick together in all kinds of weather for dear old Nebraska U!